Exploring space syntax on entrepreneurial opportunities with Wi-Fi analytics

Industrial events and exhibitions play a powerful role in creating social relations amongst individuals and firms, enabling them to expand their social network so to acquire resources. However, often these events impose a spatial structure which impacts encounter opportunities. In this paper, we study the impact that the spatial configuration has on the formation of network relations. We designed, developed and deployed a Wi-Fi analytics solution comprising of wearable Wi-Fi badges and gateways in a large scale industrial exhibition event to study the spatio-temporal trajectories of the 2.5K+ attendees including two special groups: 34 investors and 27 entrepreneurs. Our results suggest that certain zones with designated functionalities play a key role in forming social ties across attendees and the different behavioural properties of investors and entrepreneurs can be explained through a spatial lens. Based on our findings we offer three concrete recommendations for future organisers of networking events.